Like Pug, I get annoyed with the current vogue for blaming genetics for all our short-comings, as if it absolves our responsibility for working to our best abilities with the hand that we have been dealt.

Correct me if I’m missing the point, but my understanding is that genetic traits are set at the moment of conception. I suspect that as embryos, the majority of us had the potential to become Olympic finalists in some event or other. After 40 years of ‘bad living’, the fact that I am not an Olympic athlete is down to my lack of appropriate circumstances, desire and application – not genetics.

Themoabird – your earlier assertions about rugby players / rowers misses the point. They don’t have a ‘rugby gene’ that prevents them from being runners. They have spent years adapting their bodies to be great at playing rugby – to the detriment of their future running potential.

"The arrogance and condescension of asserting that if people don't achieve the times that they want it is because of "limited ambition" or "not wanting it enough" or "not working hard enough" is stunning."

I apply the same standards to myself.

I don't spend months of the year at altitudeI don't have regular massage therapyI don't stretch enoughI don't do any weight-trainingI let my family commitments interrupt my trainingI spend too long at work

Even when I was committed to this running lark, I wasn't consistent.

All of us make choices. Let's just be honest about it, nobody on this forum has come anywhere close to their "genetic limits". None of us truly "wants it" enough.

My initial thoughts about Alex were the same as most of the old-timers – “what an arrogant upstart” (or something along those lines ;-). However, from the comments of people who know Alex, he seems like a decent guy. I think he was very naive to get his publicity machine running before really appreciating the task he had set himself (I still don’t think he really understands).

To put it into stark terms, who do you think he will knock out of the Olympic team – Jon Brown, Dan Robinson or Pete Riley? Or how is he going to make the team when there are probably about 1,000 blokes training better than him right now?

That said, I know how it feels to have an injury wipe out months of hard work and sacrifice. I wish him well for the future and hope he bounces back.

Oh...and just to upset those who like to justify their limited ambition by genetic pseudo-science...He probably can run 2:15 – but not next year.....and not without a lot more hard work.

Appropriate thread title for me, as I’m signing off for a while. The combined effect of the acquisition at work & one of my key staff members leaving is putting me under even more time pressure for the next couple of months.

Being an ‘all or nothing’ guy, I don’t like to post on here when I don’t have the time to stay up-to date with what everyone else is doing. It is better that I spend any free time actually running, rather than reading about other people doing it…..

I’ll be back once things calm down a bit.

Good luck to everyone over the next couple of months. I hope the injury bench is covered in dust when I return